Montenegro 'to indict Russian spy behind coup plot'

Montenegro is reportedly preparing to indict the Russian intelligence officer it accuses of masterminding a bloody coup plot to stop the Balkan nation joining Nato.

Eduard Sismakov, an officer with Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, is accused of running a web of Serbian and Russian nationalists and paramilitaries who plotted to assassinate the Montenegrin prime minister.

Montenegro is expected to join Nato by May, despite strong opposition from Moscow which has been angered by the military alliance’s expansion in the region.

The accession would dash Russian hopes of getting a military port on the Adriatic and complete a wall of Nato members along the northern Mediterranean.

Mr Katnic last week provoked anger from the Kremlin after he for the first time alleged the involvement of “Russian state bodies” in the plot to kill Milo Djukanovic.

Around 20 people were arrested on the eve of the country’s parliamentary elections. The prosecutor has said the plot would have seen plotters mingled with opposition protesters outside the parliament building in the country’s capital, Podgorica, as the election results were announced.

At an appointed sign, the conspirators would have forced their way inside and, in the confusion, colleagues dressed in police uniforms would have also opened fire on the crowd “so that citizens would think that the official police are shooting at them”, Mr Katnic told the Telegraph last week.

“Had it been executed, such a scenario would have had an unforeseeable consequence," he said.